As I have stated before butter is much healthier for you than processed vegetable oil spreads made with polyunsaturated fats (PUFA’s) like canola and soybean oil. Many spreads also contain trans fats (hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil), but claim to be trans fat free. Trans fat is not found in nature and is so bad for your heart that it has been banned in New York City restaurants. You should be eating zero grams of it. Take a look at Benecol. They claim it is heart healthy because it contains plant sterols, but it is loaded with trans fat.
Ingredients
Liquid Canola Oil, Water, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Plant Stanol Esters, Salt, Emulsifiers, (Vegetable Mono- and Diglycerides, Soy Lecithin), Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Potassium Sorbate, Citric Acid and Calcium Disodium EDTA to
Preserve Freshness, Artificial Flavor, DL-alpha-Tocopheryl Acetate, Vitamin A Palmitate, Colored with Beta Carotene.
Notice the third ingredient is partially hydrogenated soybean oil. Ingredient seven is hydrogenated soybean oil. How can a product have these unhealthy trans fats and claim to have none? Well there is a little trick you see. The FDA allows you to have up to 500mg of trans fats per serving and still claim that your product contains no trans fats. Therefore, if your serving size contains 100 percent trans fat, but is only 499mg per serving, you can claim it contains none! Thanks FDA, said the food company, now we can really pull the wool over the public’s eyes!
Not only are the fats of vegetable oil spreads bad for you, the manufacturing process is downright scary. Here is how your “heart healthy” vegetable spread is made. I thought I would print it from the manufacturer’s perspective for a little entertainment.
Step 1
Extract the oil
Obtain some genetically modified soybean, canola or other oil of your choice. Soak in Hexane to separate the oil from the seed. Yes, it’s toxic to humans, and there will be hexane residue left in the final product, but heck, who is going to know anyway?
Step 2
Remove the Hexane from the oil.
We will do this by exposing the oil to high temperature steam. Yes, we know high heat makes oils unstable and more susceptible to oxidation (rancidity). Could this increase risk of heart disease? Possibly, but that’s okay since we’re putting a heart healthy label on this product. Here is what we will do. Add the chemical EDTA to the final product. That should take care of any further rancidity that we have already caused.
Step 3
Our oil still has pigments and waxes in it. We have to get rid of these. Let’s add some sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate and they will settle right to the bottom. Problem solved.
Step 4
This oil has an off color the public is not going to like. How about we add some bleaching clays. That should take care of things. It will also remove some anti-oxidants that prevent rancidity, but we’ve already added some rancidity in Step 2. What’s a little more going to hurt?
Step 5
Okay, now it smells bad. We can fix that very easily by subjecting our unstable oil to more heat. Let’s expose it to 500 degree Fahrenheit steam. That will get rid of all of those volatile compounds that are creating that smell. Yes, it will make our oil oxidize more, but we have the heart healthy stamp remember? Trust me, they will never know. Heck, we’ve got them so afraid of butter and cholesterol they probably wouldn’t care anyway.
Step 6
Our oil is finally done! Quite tricky, but we did it. Now we have to make it into a solid. Let’s hydrogenate it! I know that’s not heart healthy, but remember we can legally tell the public there is no trans fat. Hey, let’s stamp zero grams of trans fat on the label too! Now let’s add some synthetic Vitamin A so this stuff looks like butter and artificial flavor so it tastes like butter and we are done! Yippee! We now have a product with ingredients that the human body has never seen before. It has got to be good for you!
Whew! Are you glad that is over? Me too. I will summarize the butter making process: Churn raw milk cream and drain off the buttermilk. Continue churning. You now have butter! No chemicals, no preservatives, artificial flavors, trans fats or toxic residues. Yup, it has saturated fat and cholesterol, both of which are vital for optimal health. More on that at a later time. If you want healthy cholesterol levels then cut out the processed carbohydrates, sugar, breads, pastas and vegetable oils. Replace your synthetic Frankenbutter with real butter and get your butt off the couch and exercise. That is the best way to stay healthy my friends!